K. Morris's Blog, page 817
July 28, 2013
Waiting for the Rain
Lethargy holds sway. People mop their brows, move reluctantly onwards trying in vain to escape the deadening blanket of heat. Like a giant hand held too close to the face the heat stops our breath, we gasp longing for the blessed rain.
The over heated brain yearns for quiet, a shady nook in which to find relief from the myriad thoughts and fears that pervade it, but the rain when it comes is warm and heavy providing little restbite from the giant’s all encompassing hand.
July 27, 2013
Book Giveaways
This month’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) newsletter contains a link to a blog post on Create Space which suggests that authors give away free copies of their books in order to raise their profile and build up a loyal following, https://www.createspace.com/en/community/community/resources/blog/2013/06/24/find-advocates-with-free-books?ref=822525&utm_id=6002&cp=70170000000bgWg&ls=Email&sls=KDP_NL. I can see the advantages to such an approach, however the difficulty is that only US-based authors can provide gift copies of their books via Amazon (the facility is not available to UK-based authors such as myself). I would love to be able to give away free copies of my books via Amazon, however, at present my only option is to promote my books free of charge using the KDP Select promotion tool which authors can utilise for a maximum of 5 days in each 3 month period. I sincerely hope that Amazon extends the facility to gift to UK-based authors!
July 26, 2013
The Rebirth Of Crystal Palace?
Today’s Daily Mail carries an article concerning the possible rebuilding of the Crystal Palace which was destroyed by fire in 1936. I live some 25 minutes walk from Crystal Palace park which contains the ruins of the Crystal Palace, consequently I was interested to learn of the plans of a Chinese billionaire to reconstruct the glass structure.
Today Crystal Palace is a wonderful place in which to enjoy a walk with it’s lush green grass (well perhaps not so verdant at this time of year), the lake with it’s wild fowl and the sports centre for those possessing the spirit of adventure. Watch out for the dinosaurs though which lurk by the lake ready to pounce on the unwary!
For the article please visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2378752/Crystal-Palace-reconstructed-billionaire-Chinese-property-developer-nearly-80-years-destroyed-fire.html
July 25, 2013
Amnesia – a story by a writer other than me worth checking out
I came across this story, Amnesia which is rather thought provoking http://markovicharts.com/2013/07/20/amnesia/. There exist philosophers who argue in favour of the procedure outlined in the forgoing fictional account. See, for example the following link to the philosopher David Pearce’s website http://www.hedweb.co.uk/.
July 24, 2013
The Case Of The Flying Laptop
I will soon be famous. Let me rephrase that. I will soon be famous in my own locality for at least 15 minutes. It will be as a consequence of my writing. The reason I hear you ask? Have I written a short story which will wow the inhabitants of Crystal Palace and it’s environs when it appears in the local newspaper? No not quite. I am however fed up to the back teeth with my laptop which is not behaving as it should. To take just one example when I visit websites the machine frequently freezes and the only way in which I can close the internet is by resorting to the use of task manager! I have on several occasions been on the point of hurling the hapless computer out of the window. What a satisfying crash that dratted machine would make as it hit the ground. I can see the headlines now
“Mad writer flips his lid and throws laptop out of window accidentally braining neighbour”!
Well on the basis that all publicity is good publicity can someone open the window please, there is a mad writer on the loose.
Twitter Ebook Voted Onto The Man Booker Prize Long List
One of the contenders for the Man Booker Prize, The Kills, started life on Facebook and Twitter where the first section was given away free. I must admit to having been surprised on first reading the article in the Telegraph that a 900 word story is classified as a novel, however on re-reading the piece I see that it runs to 900 pages so can legitimately be so classified. That will teach me to speed read articles! For the Telegraph’s article please visit http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/10198682/A-Twitter-e-book-voted-on-to-the-Booker-Prize-longlist-How-very-novel.html
July 23, 2013
Reading Aloud
On Monday one of my colleagues mentioned how he reads to his 2-year-old daughter using a Kindle. His little girl likes to look at the pictures on screen, however my colleague said that he prefers print books as the photographs are bigger.
I was heartened to learn that parents still read to their children as it brought back happy memories of visits to W H Smiths with my grandfather. Most Saturdays we would pop into Smiths and buy (well my grandfather would do the purchasing) a book. On reaching home I would sit on my grandfather’s knee or lie in bed as he regailed me with the adventures of The Famous Five or other classics of children’s literature.
Today most of my reading is done using the text to speech facility on my Kindle. After a while I forget that I’m being read to by a dalek and enjoy the experience of listening to the classics of world literature, however there is no substitute for the human voice, of being read to by a much loved parent or grandparent. Sadly my grandfather died many years ago but I often think of him reading aloud to me or of our walks together in the woods near to where he lived.
WordPress.com Users Can Now Register .CO Domain Names
Reblogged from WordPress.com News:
We're excited to announce the addition of .CO as a new top-level domain on WordPress.com. If you're interested in buying a custom domain name for a new or existing site, you can now choose and register .CO from among our existing options (.ME, .COM, .NET, .ORG). The .CO domain costs $25/year.
Since launching in 2010, more than 1.5 million .CO domain names have been registered by individuals and businesses in over 200 countries worldwide.
Great news for those of us living in the UK or, indeed anyone who fancies using a co.uk domain.
July 22, 2013
Summer Fruit
Fruit hanging within temptation’s reach. Ripe, overflowing with juice, crying out to be picked. Oh how smooth and firm to the touch, dangling provocatively low, Longing to be picked, savoured and enjoyed.
July 21, 2013
The Long Shadow of the Past
On 16 July I published a story entitled “An Act of Mercy” (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/07/16/an-act-of-mercy/). In “An Act of Mercy” the government has introduced a eugenics programme under which those with mental and physical disabilities are eliminated as in the opinion of the authorities they are unproductive and place an unacceptable burden on society.
The view of disabled people as “useless eaters” and “life unworthy of life” lead to the forced sterilisation and (later) murder of many mentally and physically disabled people under the so-called Action T4 Programme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4), however the atrocities of the Third Reich where forshadowed in other countries long before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. In the United Kingdom legislation was introduced in 1912 aimed at segregating the “feeble minded” from other “healthy” members of the community. Feble minded could mean anyone a doctor deemed to fall into that category. Thus unmarried mothers became lumped together with people with mild learning disabilities and where segregated from their fellow citizens.
Support for eugenics was not a matter of party politics. The Webbs (both prominent members of the socialist Fabian Society) where strong supporters as was Winston Churchill (in 1912 a Liberal but later a Conservative politician).
In both the USA and the UK eugenics societies played a leading role in arguing for eugenic measures. In the USA legislation went further than the measures introduced in the UK with many sterilisations of the “unfit” being carried out on individuals against their will. Nazi Germany modelled it’s sterilisation law on US legislation and at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals accused of forceably sterilising the disabled the accused pointed to what had been happening in the USA in their defence.
Some supporters of eugenics where no doubt genuinely horrified at the use to which their theories had been put by Nazi doctors and the term eugenics fell out of favour largely as a consequence of the abuses perpetrated by the Third Reich. However some have argued that proponents of eugenics such as Leonard Darwin (the son of Charles Darwin) helped to create the atmosphere in which atrocities could be commited. The leading American eugenicist Charles Davenport openly expressed his admiration for the German’s eugenics programme (see http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/static/themes/25.html).
Eugenics is a fascinating subject and I will write more on it in future.
